Consumers desiring to colour their hair typically have two options available namely to use a commercially available retail product or kit or use the services of a professional salon. The latter whilst providing a highly desirable colour outcome, is considerably more expensive than the retail option and thus not available to many consumers particularly those who colour regularly.
For consumers who have previously coloured their hair, the colour and condition of the hair is not homogenous along the entire length. The hair strands will comprise root virgin hair or new growth hair which has not been previously coloured and conversely at the tips hair which has experienced one or multiple hair colouring treatments. The tips of the hair typically are the most damaged portion of the hair and the colour will have changed over time dependant on the wash fade profile and number of types of hair colourant applied, amongst many relevant factors. The intermediate hair length is typically a medium between these two extreme conditions. As a consequence in the salon, for consumers who have previously coloured their hair, the salon stylists typically will colour the root virgin hair first with a specific composition to most effectively colour the hair to the desired end result. However, the remaining length of the hair and tips which has been previously coloured and may have undergone multiple colouring cycles is coloured with a separate and different composition to that applied at the roots. In this manner the salon stylist aims to provide a homogenous end colour result along the entire length of hair from root to tip independent of the variations of starting hair colour and condition along the hair length.
However, such a proposition is currently not available to consumers as a retail product, as it would add further to the complexity and cost and is thus not consumer desirable. Nevertheless, experienced home colour users continually strive to improve the overall colour outcome and indeed as outlined in the instruction packs of many retail products will often direct the consumer to apply the product to the virgin roots first prior to the application of the product along the entire length of hair. However these instructions are imprecise, often not followed, and the results achieved using this method are not comparable with those from a salon stylist. Not only is the overall colour result not as homogenous as that provided by a salon stylist, and may result in over deposition of colour and over bleaching or brassiness, but the rheology of the product also does not necessarily easily allow specific application at the root line as well as easy pull through the remaining length of hair, whilst ensuring no dripping, and good adhesion to the roots during root application. Alternative products on the retail market have been designed to be used only on the roots to address root growth. However these are not entirely satisfactory and a root touch up line may be clearly identifiable. Moreover these products do not remove the need for a separate colouring step for the remaining hair length.
Thus, there still exists a need to provide a retail colour system for use on roots and the entire hair length, without the need for providing and preparing two separate compositions to provide similar results as those associated with professional salon stylists and improved results versus current retail executions.